Chicagoans Against Anita Alvarez

Where: THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO INSTITUTE OF POLITICS, 5707 S. WOODLAWN

What: CHICAGOANS AGAINST ANITA ALVAREZ

2/17/2016– Republican backed Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez is up for re-election on March 15th. Chicagoans Against Anita Alvarez organized to protest the discussion with the State’s Attorney on Wednesday, February 17, 2016 at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics citing Alvarez’s complicity in state violence against Black and brown people in the City of Chicago; corruption in covering up videos of police killings including withholding video evidence for over 400 days regarding the murders of LaQuan McDonald and Ronald Johnson; and failing to appropriately charge officers in the killing deaths of unarmed civilians as she did with CPD officer Dante Servin who murdered Rekia Boyd.

In addition to the above infractions, Anita Alvarez has punished prosecutors who pursue justice over conviction. Anita Alvarez suspended and demoted former Assistant State’s Attorney Sonia Antolec who dropped charges in a high profile case. Eight young African American women were wrongfully charged with mugging a person on a CTA train by CPD on the basis of a faulty identification procedure that failed to comport with CPD’s own police policies.

Anita Alvarez prosecuted domestic violence victims who sought to report police officer misconduct. Tiawanda Moore was criminally prosecuted for criminal wiretapping for recording a conversation with an internal affairs officer when she was filing a complaint for sexual harassment. Ms. Moore was acquitted by a jury.

Anita Alvarez prosecuted attorneys who sought to assist their clients at police stations as she did with Sladjana Vuckovic, a FDLA attorney.

Anita Alvarez failed to properly investigate and charge police officers responsible for murder, torture and other police misconduct. In 1996, Alvarez was promoted to Supervisor of the Public Integrity Unit, the unit responsible for prosecuting municipal and state employees who have committed felonies and violate the public trust. In this position, where she was empowered to take decisive action, she never initiated a single criminal investigation or prosecution of Burge or detectives working under his command despite credible findings made in the Goldston Report made publicly available in 1992 or the well-publicized Chicago Police Board hearings that demonstrated that Burge and others tortured and physically coerced scores of African American men into confessing to crimes resulting in Burge’s termination from the Chicago Police Department in 1993. Ms. Alvarez also did not conduct any investigations into the torture allegations raised by individuals on Illinois’ death row (otherwise known as the Death Row 10) in 1996 or for several years thereafter, including those of Madison Hobley, Stanley Howard, Ronald Kitchen, Leroy Orange and Aaron Patterson, all of whom have now been exonerated on the basis of their innocence.

Anita Alvarez rules over an office known for defending wrongful convictions involving false confessions, in a City dubbed the false conviction capital of the world.

Anita Alvarez prosecutes activists with ridiculous and overblown terrorism charges in an attempt to stifle and intimidate other activists.

Anita Alvarez has contributed to the hyper incarceration of Black people.

As Chicagoans Against Anita Alvarez, we assert that Alvarez should NOT be re-elected to a third term on March 15th, 2016. Instead, Alvarez should be investigated for criminal negligence and dereliction of duty for the many infractions she has taken against the people of Chicago.

The Cook County justice system is corrupt and racist. In order to make substantive changes we demand the end to cash bail. We demand an investigation of the State’s Attorneys office for extensive cover-ups of police crimes. We demand an end to all mandatory minimum sentencing in Cook County. We demand the defunding and ultimate closing of the Cook County juvenile detention center and Cook County jail. We want a redirection of funds saved to support mental health clinics; housing for youth, homeless and nearly homeless; jobs for young people and the unemployed; fully funded schools and crisis centers.